The first defeat in the 52nd competitive game of the season is a painful one for Bayer Leverkusen. After the Europa League final against Atalanta Bergamo, Granit Xhaka has big questions. The master can provide the answer to this on Saturday evening.
Granit Xhaka is actually something of a metronome in Bayer Leverkusen’s midfield. Whenever he is on the pitch, he sets the pace in the center. On this Wednesday evening in Dublin, however, despite 133 ball contacts and 120 passes played, both the highest for the Werkself, he never found a rhythm. When the 31-year-old appeared in front of the microphones after the 0:3 (0:2) defeat in the Europa League final against Atalanta Bergamo, he perhaps seemed curt, perhaps even a little annoyed.
It’s not just Xhaka who can hardly match the performances that got Bayer this far in this final. “It wasn’t our day, it wasn’t our game,” says the Swiss, who then summarizes in six words what had become just as obvious to the 47,135 spectators in the stadium as it was to the millions in front of the screens: “The better team won today.” Atalanta never lets Bayer come into play and simply buys Leverkusen “in many areas,” as managing director Simon Rolfes puts it.
It is a clear defeat for the Werkself, who had hoped so much for their second European Cup triumph after the UEFA Cup victory in 1988, but left the field defeated at the end of the 90 minutes, as in the 2002 Champions League final. Ademola Lookman scored three times for Bergamo, rewarding the Italian first division club for an outstanding performance in the 12th, 26th and 75th minutes. After 51 games without defeat, the German champions have no choice but to acknowledge their opponent’s superiority.
Bayer Leverkusen gets to know a new feeling
“The disappointment is huge for every single player,” says Xhaka, giving a brief insight into the dressing room, which was much quieter than usual this season. “It’s painful to lose a final, but unfortunately that’s part of football.” For a significant part of the Leverkusen squad, losing has not yet been part of their everyday life under the Bayer Cross – for almost half of the professionals used by coach Xabi Alonso in this final, it is their first competitive defeat with their current employer.
Maybe Granit A drastic sentence, at least at first glance, but which the Swiss do not want to be understood in such a drastic way. “No, no,” he replied when asked whether he doubted the character of the Werkself: “It’s not about doubting. But we had that feeling [der Niederlage] “Never this year.”
The team now has to deal with this innovation, says Xhaka: “When you’re unbeaten for 51 match days, it’s easy to stand by each other and laugh with each other.” The bitter experience against Bergamo now offers the chance “to see which player has character, which player can get up quickly after a defeat and move on.” It seems a bit surreal that the Leverkusen team is asking themselves such questions after the first defeat of an outstanding season – as if it weren’t completely common for football teams from district class C to the Champions League to simply have a bad day at some point.
Perhaps it is more of a reaction of defiance that is expressed in Xhaka’s small question of character. A disguised motivational speech, in a sense a “especially now” after the disappointing performance in the biggest game for Bayer in over 20 years. “This defeat shouldn’t ruin our season,” says Xhaka, as if this option were seriously under discussion. As if the classification “A season for eternity” hadn’t already been established, as if it wasn’t already clear that all those Bayer fans who experienced this season would later tell their grandchildren about the many special moments.
Xhaka: “If not a triple, then …”
Xhaka’s thoughts also illustrate the demands that Leverkusen now have on themselves. Being the first team in Bundesliga history to remain undefeated in all 34 games is not enough. Reaching the finals of the Europa League and the DFB Cup is not enough. Xabi Alonso has turned the often-mocked “Vizekusen” into a top international team – which has now simply lost to Atalanta Bergamo.
He and his teammates must quickly put the pain behind them, says Xhaka. This weekend they will face 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the second division team in the national cup final on Saturday evening. (8 p.m./ARD, Sky and in the live ticker at ntv.de) the biggest outsider possible. The last game of the season once again offers Leverkusen the chance to create something new: with a win, Bayer becomes only the sixth club in German football history to win the championship and cup in one season.
“It continues,” sums up Xhaka. There are less than 72 hours between the final whistle in Dublin and the kick-off in Berlin, so there isn’t much time left. Which is why the midfield pace-setter then dictates what the goal is for the game in the Olympic Stadium after the dream of three titles has shattered: “If not triple, then double.” A success that should also provide him with answers to the question of character.